Five Ways the Doctor & Rose Weren't Reunited
by surrexi
Summary: Written for using prompts from an "unusual first lines for reunion!fic" challenge on LJ.
1. Well, that would explain the suit

The first thing he says to her is ridiculous, but then again, being as it was _him_, she was probably expecting as much.

It's been a few days since he left Mr. Copper in the snow that wasn't snow, and after a nearly-suicidal attempt to liberate a group of slaves on a faraway planet all on his own, the Doctor actually falls asleep on the bench in the console room. It isn't the most comfortable place to sleep, but somehow he can't quite muster the energy to make it back to his bedroom. It's not like he'll sleep for very long anyway, he thinks, and he simply curls up on the bench.

A few minutes later, he is rudely awakened by the TARDIS jolting from side to side, tossing him against the console. After a few muttered curses he'd picked up on Raxacoricofallapatorius that the TARDIS would never have translated had there been anyone there to translate for, the Doctor manages to get the ship stabilized and to land it in Cardiff, of all places.

He tells himself that it's the fact that he had actually been sleeping just prior that keeps him from saying anything worthwhile when he glances at the console screen and sees the improbable sight of Rose Tyler standing outside. She _can't_ be there, and thus he easily convinces himself it's some kind of dream.

But he blinks, and he pinches himself, and her image doesn't waver, and so he opens the door and now he's standing in the TARDIS doorway staring at Rose Tyler, big as life, and she's looking at him like she's never seen anything better and he _really_ should say something eloquent and touching right now, but what comes out of his mouth is something completely different.

"Hang on a second, I'm in the middle of a psychotic episode."

There's a reason he fell in love with her, though, and she reminds him of her absolute brilliance and of just how perfect she is for him when she simply looks him over, eyes skimming over his blue suit and red trainers and his hair that's gotten just a tiny bit too long. She smiles, unaffected by the lack of romance in his greeting, and her tongue pokes out from between her teeth in that way that drives him crazy and he's _sure_ he really _is_ having a psychotic episode after all, until that mischievous glint shows in her eyes.

"Well," she says, giving him one last once-over before meeting his gobsmacked eyes, "that _would_ explain the suit."


	2. Nope, not

In her defense, she _really_ wasn't expecting to see him.

When she comes face to face with the Doctor after years in the parallel universe, she isn't even _trying_ to get back to him. Not that she hadn't – in fact she's leaving about a dozen exploratory projects unfinished when she decides, with so little hesitation that she doesn't even realize that she's made a decision at all, to stay on the TARDIS to blaze into the unknown with her skinny, crazy Time Lord.

Still, she's working on a completely different project, Project Indigo, one that's solely intended to explore ways to expand the teleportation abilities of Torchwood operatives. Ever the multi-tasker, she's also aiming to make a peace conference between two warring alien races whose battles always seemed to spill over and affect the Earth.

She stands in Torchwood's research facility making final touches on the wrist unit they're field testing for the first time. It's styled after the wrist unit she remembers Jack wearing, though she knows it has far fewer capabilities. She straps it on, has a final word with Mickey and accepts his good luck wishes. Then with a final nod, she sets the coordinates for her destination and hits the button that should send her to a far-off alien world.

Instead she finds herself in the TARDIS console room, face to face with the one man she never thought she'd see again. He's still the same – same brown suit with the same blue pinstripes, same white Converse, same really great hair, same gobsmacked expression when faced with something he believes is impossible. So she says the first thing that pops into her head.

"Oh, right. Not the Peace Conference of Sicamore 5, then?"

"Nope," the Doctor says, popping the 'p' sound. "Not."

She shrugs, rips off the wrist unit lest it decide to pull her back into the Torchwood lab, and tosses it across the console room. "Under the circumstances I'm so not disappointed."

She launches herself at the Doctor, arms around his neck and legs around his waist, and they don't say anything at all for some time after that.


	3. Also, run!

He's in a bit of a hurry when he quite literally runs into Rose Tyler even though she's supposed to be trapped forever in a parallel world, so he decides it's not his fault if what he said wasn't exactly what one might expect to hear on such an important occasion.

He's finally convinced Jack to take a break from Torchwood and travel with him for a while. He's been lonely on the TARDIS with Martha gone, and Jack reminds him of happier times.

Jack insists, however, that if he's going to be traveling with the Doctor, then his wrist computer needs to be in full working order, including the vortex manipulator. The Doctor sonics it so that the vortex manipulator works, but then they discover a vital piece of machinery has gone missing and they're off to a marketplace on Paxhovia Six to find a replacement.

Of course, someone chooses just that moment to threaten to _destroy_ the marketplace on Paxhovia Six if certain demands aren't met, and suddenly Jack and the Doctor are extremely busy trying to prevent destruction and death (whilst also trying to remember to accomplish their initial task of finding the proper replacement part for Jack's wrist computer).

As such, the Doctor is certain that he should be forgiven for the fact that when he quite literally runs into Rose Tyler on his way to defuse a bomb planted in the fruit stand before he ends up with pear juice all over himself (he _hates_ pears), he says the first ridiculous thing that pops into his head.

"Oh, there you are! By the way, Jack's not dead and it's all your fault. Also, run!"

He also decides that since she simply shrugs and follows him to the fruit stand, helps him defuse the bomb, and then snogs him senseless when they're done, he doesn't need to tell her about how he deserves forgiveness.


	4. What's wrong with the blue?

Rose Tyler had imagined being reunited with the Doctor in all sorts of ways, and she's the first one to admit it. She's not ashamed of the fact that she wants to get back to her fantastic life in the TARDIS with the Doctor more than anything else in the world. It isn't just the _Doctor_ after all, isn't just that she's pining after some man at the expense of living her own life, which she's certain is what Mickey thinks.

Her mum understands, though, which Rose is sort of surprised by, given how Jackie always spoke about the Doctor and the changes he brought to Rose's life. But Rose thinks maybe being able to find love with the alternate version of Pete Tyler has mellowed Jackie, or at least made her a little bit more accepting of the Doctor's effect on their lives.

Rose's dedication to the research about the Void and ways to get across without tearing holes in two universes is unswerving, and soon Pete learns to only task her with cases that relate to it in some way. She does more research than all the other people working on the project combined, and even Mickey finally gives up trying to dissuade her from her focus.

They finally solve it on a Saturday afternoon in July and Rose already has a backpack in her office with everything she wants to take with her to her own, proper universe. She includes one change of clothes, a little bit of food, a few photos and mementos of her family and Mickey, and her very own vortex manipulator she can use to track down the Doctor once she makes it out of Pete's World in one piece.

While Jackie fusses over her and Mickey pouts in the corner, Pete makes the final preparations and Rose just imagines what it will be like when she sees the Doctor again. In all of her scenarios, he's wearing his usual brown suit, with the exception of one or two particularly ridiculous ones in which he's wearing that tuxedo of his. So when she gets safely across the Void, successfully locates the TARDIS, uses her key to rush in before the Doctor can even notice her on the console screen, and finds him wearing neither the brown suit nor the tuxedo, all her imagined lines fly out of her head and she lets out an exasperated sigh.

"Oh, come on! You can't tell me the TARDIS didn't tell you that suit was a bad idea!"

He gapes at her, affronted. "Oi! What's wrong with the blue?"

She decides the only thing to do is to get him out of the suit with all haste. He doesn't object.


	5. Long time no see

The TARDIS materializes outside of an empty church, on an abandoned street that looks like a war zone. Then again, the Doctor muses, the Daleks had transported the planet across space and time and then invaded. Why _wouldn't_ it look like a war zone?

"It's like a ghost town," Donna says, her voice hushed as if they were inside the church instead of outside.

"Sarah Jane said that they were taking the people. But what _for_?" He glances wildly around, as if the overturned cars and scattered rubbish hold the answers. He turns to Donna. "Think, Donna. When you met Rose in that parallel world, what did she say?" He wants to know what the Daleks are up to, but in his hearts he really just wants to know everything Rose said, everything Rose is, and keep the information in some private corner of his mind and hearts.

"Just… the darkness is coming," Donna says apologetically.

"Anything else?" the Doctor asks insistently. Surely Rose would have given more hints – between the two of them she was never the enigmatic one; that was always his role.

And then Donna smiles that almost motherly smile of hers, that smile that says she's just happy that _he's_ happy. "Why don't you ask her yourself?"

He turns, and down the street in the distance he sees Rose Tyler walking toward him, and he can't quite believe it's really her, _cannot_ find it in him to care that she is carrying a monster-sized gun. And then she smiles, wider and happier than he's maybe ever seen, and she starts running, and _he_ starts running and he _knows_ he's never smiled like this in all of his lives with _any_ of his faces.

He doesn't see the cars and rubbish bins he skirts around as he runs for her, and he never notices the Dalek in the shadows. He doesn't hear it call out "Exterminate!" and he doesn't notice when Captain Jack Harkness appears out of nowhere and shoots the Dalek with a gun just as large as Rose's before it can get a shot at the Doctor. All he notices is Rose, running toward him.

And then he's too busy hugging Rose to notice _anything_. The universe could collapse around them at any minute but all he can do is spin her around joyously and press his lips to hers for the first time in what feels like a thousand years.

The kiss breaks and he's still smiling, and so is she, and all he can say is her name. "Rose."

"Hi," she says, and he hears a million other things in the single syllable.

"Long time no see," he returns, suppressed laughter in his voice.

"Been busy, you know," she says blithely.

Then she kisses him again and they don't stop until Jack taps them on the shoulder. "Not that I'm not enjoying this – and seriously, you two, I hope when this is all over there's room for one more – but don't we have a couple universes to save?"

They laugh, and the Doctor and Rose hold hands as they run back to the TARDIS to save the universe once again.


End file.
